ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion anyone accept credit cards?

I'm going to check into this myself soon, can certainly see the many advantages.

I posted a letter from card svc person at my bank, NationalCity:

Our simplest program would be our phone service. This is just an 800 number that you dial into to get authorization.

The costs associated with this service is 2.63% of the transaction plus .44. For every $100 it would cost you $3.00 a transaction. Visa requires a monthly minimum of $1200 going through the system. If you don't reach that minimum then the fee is charged. At most it would be $18. This $18 is only charged if you have zero sales. The fee is prorated based on the monthly volume. There is also a monthly statement fee of $9.95. This statement shows you all activity and fees associated for the month. The last fee is our implementation fee. This fee is to build your files with us and Visa. This is a one time charge of $175.

Keep looking! We don't have a minimum required amount. Our intrest rate is around 1.5% - 1.7%. I believe we have a $10/month statement fee. Bear with me, it is a new company and I might be off a little. The point is this has become a pretty competitive market and if you do a little homework you can save alot of money.

I don't accept credit cards directly yet, but I set up a business paypal account. It has worked out well as some of my customers enjoy putting the home repairs and upgrade coss towards reward points and such.

Tom, can you explain how that works? Do people then pay their bill through the internet and it is the same as accepting a credit card? How much does it cost and what is the prcedure to pay the bill (customer's side) and procedure to collect your money (contractors side)?

Jps, its very easy.

1. You go to paypal.com and set up an account for your business.

2. After it is setup, you tell your customers that they can pay thru paypal, they just need to set up an account for free. To pay thru paypal is at no cost, to receive thru paypal it is fee based, 3%, but don't quote me on that number.

3. Depending on the type of account you have, you can transfer funds electronically or request a paper check.

This method works really good for the customers that I have that use AMEX, they pay their bill and get reward points.

I like the Paypal idea BUT on a $10,000 job you would lose $300. Now if the customer wants to pay the 3% juice that would be acceptable in my book.

Sparky 134, Look at it this way. Just up all your prices 1% and don't worry how anyone pays. It'll work out in the end.

What if you have a customer that asks you for an estimate and you quote $10,000. They say they want to do the work, do you take Visa. You say no, they say thanks anyway, maybe we'll call back when we have the cash. Or you could say yes and get the job.

Actually providing financing is a cool thing when done right. I used to provide financing thru third party for my alarm / access control customers when I also used to contract those types of systems. You get paid for the full amount of the job right away, less the percentage you pay the finance company. They then become the owner's of the note and any problems collecting on the payments are their problems, not your problem. So you can get your payment for the full job up front and not have to worry about getting stiffed for partial amounts owed. Where it does not work so well is if the project is going to have a lot of extra's, like alot of electrical contracts usually do have. Alarm systems were more straitfoward - pay this much and you get this system installed.

I'm looking into this and have found a few in the 1.77% range for discount rate (retail swiped), 20 cents transaction fee, and $10/month statement fee. If anyones doing better than that, I'd appreciate the address. What equiptment are you using? I'm finding this in the $279-$379 range.

Dave